3D Printing Bellwethers Report Earnings in Next 48 Hours

Two bellwether 3d printing companies report their quarterly earnings in the next 48 hours, with 3D Systems set to announce Wednesday morning and Stratasys following on Thursday.

It's been a somewhat volatile year for both companies stock prices, with upside swings early, followed by declines in May for both firms as analysts began to seriously weigh the impact of computing giant HP potentially gaining steam with their new Multi-Jet Fusion 3d printer.

"We believe several customers have and will likely continue to pause purchasing to assess these new (HP) offerings," analyst Troy Jensen at Piper Jaffrey wrote in a July release which led to a sizeable drop in the stock values of both Stratasys and 3D Systems. "Our 2Q16 survey results were the poorest we have seen in recent memory, and given the internal challenges both Stratasys and 3D Systems have, we have become more cautious on both companies."

While both companies have seen a fall off in the last five days heading into earnings announcements, year to date 3D Systems is up 40% and Stratasys is down just over 17%.

In related news, two weeks ago the first publicly traded ETF focused on 3d printing was launched with DDD making up 4.73% of the weight and SSYS making up 4.69%